Titans Companion Review

Are you hardcore enough to want this guide to the Teen Titans?

Titans Companion was created for the dedicated Teen Titans fan. If you are a fan, particularly one that has read the title for over a decade, this guide will likely prove fascinating. If you are new to the book or really don't know much about the young DC heroes, do not buy this.

<companion is not a collection of comics. In fact its not even in color. Aside from a series of brief descriptions of all the members of the various incarnations of the team the book is a series of interviews with comic creators. Artists and writers such as George Prez Marv Wolfman Paul Levitz Neal Adams Chris Claremont and over a dozen others are interviewed for this text-driven archive of Titans history. The old stories arcs and events are remembered through the interviews not through independent features. The layout is drab and uninteresting. Its reminiscent of a Dungeons and Dragons guide. Certainly something like this deserves a better treatment.

The artwork featured in the series is decent for an archive, though color would have been preferred. With this much artwork color would have been an expensive route to take, but this is a relatively expensive book. It's close to the price of a Marvel hardcover. This guide needs that extra layer of polish. What is present is an excellent collection of modern and silver age artwork, reinforcing the encompassing nature of Companion.

Whether a purchase is warranted here comes down to your level of knowledge and experience with the Teen Titans. Long-time fans are going to find the journey back in time fantastic, and the creator-driven nature of the book will be right at home. Anyone who has only been with the Titans for a year or two will find the majority of this volume over their head and not focused on providing the history in an effective manner. Newer fans are not going to be as interested in reading the analytical nature of Companion; they will want to see something that is a guide to stories and characters more than a guide to the history of the comic itself. Author Glen Cadigan has created an amazing resource for hardcore Titans fans, but it's not even treated in that regard. The guide is $25, not in color, and has a dull and boring layout. Even the hardcore will struggle to be enamored with how the information is presented. Pass this unless you are desperate for some Titans information.